Daniel Wilkerson Makes Nitro Funny Car Debut In His Dad’s Car
May 26, 2008
NHRA
Milan, Mich. : All across America young men are borrowing their father’s car for the weekend, some to impress a special young lady, others to haul their possessions home from school. 20 year-old college student, Daniel Wilkerson borrowed his dad’s car this weekend. Only he didn’t get a big SUV or a luxury car, instead he got a 7,000 horsepower nitro burning Funny Car. By the way, his father happens to be the current NHRA POWERade points leader, Tim Wilkerson. And Daniel took the Lev, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS to the IHRA Motor City Nationals in Milan, Mich. to make his nitro Funny Car debut.
The talented young driver is no stranger to drag racing, having started his career at the age of 12 in Junior Dragster. Last year in his first full Top Alcohol Funny Car season of racing, he was the Lucas Oil Div. 3 Champion. But his dream of driving a race car started before the ripe old age of 12.
As mom, Krista explains, “in his mind, Daniel has been driving this race car since he was five years old. I think he did a terrific job this weekend and I’m very proud of him. He takes after his dad and that gives me goose bumps. “
On his first professional pass down the quarter-mile on Friday night, Daniel brought the drag racing community to its feet as he posted a 4.831 at 316.01 mph capturing the No. 1 position in the Torco Racing Fuels Pro Nitro qualifying and earning the coveted Last Man Standing award. And to top off his stunning performance, this was the quickest Funny Car pass in IHRA history.
In the second day of qualifying at the Milan Dragway, Daniel didn’t fare as well. On his first pass, he dropped a cylinder and the car moved close to the wall. It was reported that he hit the wall, but he did a good driving job and kept it off. He posted a 4.962 at 289.94 mph. In the last session, Daniel smoked the tires and coasted across the finish line at 9.086. Even though he didn’t improve on his Friday night run, he remained the No. 1 qualifier.
Race day continued to be a dream come true for this second-generation driver. Daniel drove his way to a final-round appearance, by first taking out Dale Creasy Jr. and then Jack Wyatt. This matched him up against Paul Lee in the final-round. Here Daniel didn’t have enough to hold off his opponent, only posting a 5.201 against Lee’s 4.956.
“It was a fairytale weekend, from beginning to end, ” expressed Daniel, “and we had fun the whole time. There are no words to describe it, it’s unbelievable. It was really exciting to get to race Dad’s car, it’s really fast. It was a great weekend. I didn’t need to win for it to be great.
“That 4.83 run on Friday night was the fastest I’ve ever gone in my entire life. It would have been cool if we could have backed it up and gotten the world record. And it would have been out of this world if we would have won, but I’m glad for Paul Lee. He’s in the points hunt and we’re not. And with the way Dad’s year is we know how important points are and how much fun that is. We’re just trying to get me some seat time. We don’t even know how many races we’re going to do, so it was good for Paul. ”
“I’m extremely proud of Daniel, ” said proud dad, Tim. “This weekend was a good time and it was great to be in the finals. I let him down there because I put on our old, crummy blower and it was a slug. I wish I could blame something other than me, but I don’t think so. There may be an ignition problem because I thought it would be better than that, so we’ll look into it at the shop.
